Xbox 360 takes back seat to Wii again in March

In February, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 retook the lead in NPD Group’s monthly U.S. game-console sales report. That didn’t last long – in March, the Nintendo Wii outsold the Xbox 360 by more than 200,000 units.

NPD on Thursday reported that 557,500 Wiis were sold in March. Meanwhile, 338,400 Xbox 360s and 313,900 Sony PlayStation 3s sold during the same period – plus 118,300 PlayStation 2s.

Industry-wide, game hardware sales dropped 4 percent year over year, from $457.1 million a year ago to $440.5 million last month. For the year to date, hardware sales were down 15 percent and game sales decreased by 7 percent compared to the same period in 2009, according to NPD.

March sales of software, accessories and games, however, all rose significantly year over year. The industry saw $1.52 billion in video game sales during March 2010 – 6 percent more than $1.44 billion in March 2009, NPD reported. Software sales rose 10 percent and accessory sales rose 11 percent.